


Redemption is Never Free

by WolfAndHound_Archivist



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Post-Sirius in Azkaban, Work In Progress
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-06
Updated: 2004-07-22
Packaged: 2018-05-18 15:28:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 737
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5933365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WolfAndHound_Archivist/pseuds/WolfAndHound_Archivist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>WIP</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Note from Lassenia, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [Wolf and Hound](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Wolf_and_Hound), which was created to make stories posted to the Sirius_Black_and_Remus_Lupin Yahoo! mailing list easier to find. However, even though I still love the fandom, I am no longer active in it and do not have the time to maintain it. To preserve the archive, I began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in December 2015. I posted an announcement with Open Doors, but we may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on the [Wolf and Hound collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/wolfandhound/profile).

In the fight against the Dark, personal considerations must often be put aside for the greater good.

That is what I tell myself, in the dark hours after another personal loss, when the tears refuse to come and my heart refuses to break because all my tears have been cried and my heart broke long ago.

While it is a true saying, while it has provided reinforcement of my decisions many times, while I have often offered it as a panacea to others in their suffering, it has never truly satisfied me.

For it is also false.

If we as individuals cannot be true to our ideals in the small things - the personal crises of our lives, how can we, as a people, be true in the big things - the crises of a school, a nation, a race?

How often, if we are honest, does the fate of a school, or a nation or a race rest upon the decision of one person to what is right?

What would have happened in this latest fight against the Dark had Sirius Black not only said "no" to Lucius Malfoy, but to his anger against Severus Snape? If Severus Snape had said "no" to his desire for revenge? Or his desire for a defenseless boy?

What would have happened had Remus Lupin been free of the taint of treason and been chosen as the Potter's Secret Keeper?


	2. Chapter One

Severus Snape came to me almost a year ago to confess 'an incident' during his days here as a student.

Considering the fact that he had just announced to the entire student body that their Defense against the Dark Arts Professor was a werewolf, thereby causing Remus to resign and, for all Severus knew, forcing him back onto the streets, this confession could have been about anything.

I never considered, not for a moment, anything even close to the story he poured out to me. How I kept an impassive face and a closed mouth through his telling, I've no idea. I felt more rage then than I had felt in decades. He did this for Remus' own good? He might 'love' Remus?

I don't think so.

Severus is as mixed up in his motives as he has always been. He attacks Sirius in front of Remus and the children in the, yes, honest belief that Sirius is guilty - I can accept that. But to gloat over an award from the Ministry for capturing Sirius, to moan over it's loss, and to threaten **Remus** with Azkaban as well.

Sometimes I despair of Severus.

Actually, I sometimes despair of Sirius as well.

Revenge is an idiocy not limited to humans, it is alive and well in the wizarding world. We are, after all, basically human. None of our healers or philosophers have some up with an answer to the question of how we differ from humans, they only know we do.

It is our bigots who drive a wedge between and pure humanity, claiming humanity is a lesser species. The question they have never answered, however, is this: How is it, if pure wizarding blood is better, that many of of our best and brightest, our most talented come from pure or mixed human ancestry?

Genetic purity, however is neither here nor there. It is not at the root of the story Severus related to me. After all, all of the participants in this drama, **everyone** of them, is descended, in unbroken line, for generations untold, from pure wizard families. Only Remus might not fit that designation, and then only because of his curse. His heritage more that fits Malfoy's criteria for **purity**.

It is Malfoy who obsesses over issues of heredity. It is Malfoy, with his dedication to the Dark, his own advancement, and revenge against Sirius, who gave Snape , with his desire for his own revenge against Sirius, such a horrible resolution to his dilemma.

I am afraid, though, that Severus is learning that revenge is never sweet. This past year has not been easy for him. I have not been easy on him.

Severus is going to learn about remorse. Whatever his true feelings for Remus, he needs to learn remorse. He needs to know it is not enough to say "I'm sorry." It isn't even enough to say "I was wrong."

If Severus wants forgiveness and redemption, he's going to have to work for it.

Redemption is never free.


End file.
